1. Heaven made the race of men, designed With nature good and large; Functions of body, powers of mind, Their duties to discharge. All men this normal nature own, Its normal virtue all men crown With love sincere and true. Heaven by our sovereign's course was moved, And to aid him, its son approved, Gave birth to Chung Shan-fu.

2. Mild and admired, this chief displays Virtues that win the heart. His air and looks a wondrous grace To all his ways impart. His rule of life the ancient law, To bear himself unmarred by flaw With earnest mind he aims. In sympathy with our great Head, Abroad the royal will to spread His constant service claims.

3. The king gave charge to Chung Shan-fu:— "Hear now what I direct. As served your fathers, so serve you, And me, your king, protect. Let all my lords your pattern see; Publish among them each decree; Speak freely in my stead. Of what goes on inform my mind. Through you let all my measures find Obedience promptly paid."

4. Great was the charge. Our hero hears, And hastens to obey. Among the princes he appears; Of each he marks the way. Who good, who bad, throughout the land, He clearly sees. With wisdom grand He guards his life and fame. Nor day nor night he icily rests; The king's, the one man's, high behests His soul with zeal inflame.

5. Among the people flies the word: "What's soft men swallow fast; And what is for the teeth too hard Out of their mouths they cast." But never yet did mortal trace In Chung Shan such ignoble case; Nor soft nor hard he knows. The strong and fierce he does not dread; And on the poor or widowed head Insult he never throws.

6. Again the people often say:— "Virtue is very light? Light as a hair; yet few can bear The burden of its weight." 'Tis so; but Chung Shan, as I think, Needs not from virtue's weight to shrink, That other men defies. Aid from my love his strength rejects. If the king's measures have defects, What's needed he supplies.

7. He asks the spirit of the path His blessing to send down. His steeds are strong; each soldier hath A bravery like his own. Eastward they march; his charge is there. That city's bulwarks to repair, How ardently he hies! List to the tinkling of his bells! Of his steeds' constant tramp it tells;— The walls will soon arise.

8. Yes, on to Ch'i the hero went, With his four steeds so strong. Their eight bells told his purpose bold;— He'll not be absent long! I, Yin Chi-fu, this song now sing. Like gentle breeze, O may it bring To his unresting mind, 'Mid all his toils and cares, some cheer! Yes, may our great Chung Shan find here The comfort I designed!

About this reader

What is Scripture?

Scripture is a browser-based reader for sixteen sacred texts spanning multiple religious and literary traditions. It provides chapter-by-chapter navigation, full-text search across all works, word concordance with frequency analysis, verse-linked notes, text-to-speech, and deep linking to any chapter or verse.

Traditions Represented

The collection spans Abrahamic, East Asian, Zoroastrian, Buddhist, and Nordic traditions. Christian texts include the King James Version Old and New Testaments (1611) and Apocrypha. The Quran uses Marmaduke Pickthall's 1930 English translation. Latter-day Saint scripture includes the Book of Mormon (1830), Doctrine and Covenants (1835), and Pearl of Great Price (1851).

Confucian works include James Legge's translations of The Four Books (1893) and the Book of Poetry (1876). The Tao Te Ching uses Legge's 1891 translation. The Kojiki uses Basil Hall Chamberlain's 1919 English translation. Zoroastrian texts include the Bundahishn (E. W. West, 1880) and the Arda Viraf (Haug & West, 1872). The Lotus Sutra uses Hendrik Kern's 1884 translation. The Finnish Kalevala uses John Martin Crawford's 1888 translation, and the Norse Poetic Edda uses Henry Adams Bellows' 1923 translation.

Public Domain Translations

Every translation in this collection is in the public domain. The most recent translation dates to 1930 (Pickthall's Quran). All texts are freely available for reading, study, quotation, and redistribution with no copyright restrictions.

Concordance and Related Passages

The concordance indexes every word across all sixteen works, showing frequency and distribution. TF-IDF (term frequency-inverse document frequency) scoring identifies passages with similar vocabulary across different traditions, enabling comparative study without requiring prior knowledge of each text's structure. TF-IDF weights words that are frequent in one chapter but rare across the corpus, surfacing meaningful thematic connections rather than common function words.

Deep Linking

Every chapter and verse has a permanent URL. Chapter links follow the pattern /scripture/{work}/{book}-{chapter} (e.g., /scripture/ot/gen-1 for Genesis 1). Verse links append the verse number (e.g., /scripture/ot/gen-1:26 for Genesis 1:26). These URLs can be shared, bookmarked, or cited directly.

Accessibility

Scripture supports keyboard navigation throughout: Tab moves between controls, Enter activates verse actions, and arrow keys navigate chapters. The reading pane has a skip-to-content link. All overlays (search, concordance) are focus-trapped ARIA dialogs. Dynamic content regions use aria-live for screen reader announcements. High-contrast mode is available via the theme toggle. Verse numbers are visible to assistive technology. No flashing content or motion hazards.

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